If from Shanghai south railway station south of the Shanghai min overhead, it's easy to see big wheel was built in 2002 open Shanghai (jinjiang amusement park ferris wheel) - this is not just an amusement facilities, to some degree has become a landmark.

When it comes to the iconic modern outdoor ferris wheel, designer Ronald Bussink is a man who can't get around. Professional design of the ferris wheel Ronald Bussink although will step into this field from 1985, but until 2000, when invited to welcome thousands of jubilee building a ferris wheel in Paris, he realized that part of the ferris wheel is not just a playground, can also be a landmark alone. Today, people aboard the Paris ferris wheel can overlook concord square, the Eiffel Tower, the champs elysees The building, which is only 60 meters in diameter, has become a popular attraction in Paris.

Two years after the Paris ferris wheel was built, a wave of ferris wheel fever hit China. New ferris wheels have been completed in Shanghai, Harbin, zhengzhou, changsha, taizhou, wuwei, nanchang, tianjin, suqian, wuxi, suzhou, taizhou and liaocheng. At least one ferris wheel has been built every year for the past 14 years.

It seems that both first-tier cities and fourth-tier cities have joined the trend. The question is, why are Chinese cities so keen to build giant ferris wheels?

Low costs are an important reason. As landmarks, skyscrapers (more than 150 meters tall buildings) is usually tens of billions of yuan, the cost of a cost generally ferris wheel built in just tens of millions of yuan to several hundred million yuan, such as the joy garden investment for investment of 10 million yuan of the ferris wheel, nanchang star investment of 100 million yuan.

Another reason is that it takes less time to build and costs more to recycle. It usually takes only one to two years to build a ferris wheel, and the cost recovery period is not long. Skyscrapers require more professional and sophisticated late-stage operations, while ferris wheels rely more on ticket revenue from people. With a total investment of $15m, the Capital Wheel at Washington's national port attracted 25,000 visitors in its first week of service, and a single ticket price of $15 -- a cost that developers plan to recoup within two years.

The enthusiasm seems to be "productive" -- China now holds six of the world's 10 tallest ferris wheels. Four foreign ferris wheel in the list are respectively the sparrow hills ferris wheel in Moscow, Russia (170 meters), the United States of Las Vegas High Roller (167.5 meters), the Singapore flyer ferris wheel (165 meters) and the London eye (135 meters)